A Brewery Founded By MIT Geeks Releases a New Sci-Fi Rock Album on Beer Cans

When was the last time Pabst Blue Ribbon released a beer based on a sci-fi concept album about transdimensional travel? Never, that's when. But Aeronaut Brewing Co., founded by a team of MIT and Cornell graduates, is doing just that—they're collaborating with the rock band The Lights Out (whose performances consist of mesmerizing light shows) to release a brand-new beer that drops a new album right on the cans. Here's the trailer:

How did all this come together? According to Adam Ritchie, lead guitarist of The Lights Out:

"We'd just played South By Southwest, and were thinking about where to go next as a band. So naturally we disappeared for two years to write an album about the multiverse and invent a wearable light show to synchronize with the music."

From there, the band blended inspirations that ranged from Hugh Everett's many-worlds interpretation to Dune, The X-Files, and even mainstream pop culture like Star Wars and The Man in the High Castle into an album that's meant to be an account of other realities:

"This idea that every action you take branches off into a parallel timeline where a version of you is living a different life gives you an unlimited scope to write about. We decided our job would be to visit those places and report back on what we've seen. So we wrote a collection of stories and characters from other worlds, and called it 'T.R.I.P.'"

So does the beer have weird, exotic flavors in it, like jalapenos and comet dust? According to Ben Holmes at Aeronaut Brewing Co., it took some creative flair to create a beer that would match the subject matter of the album:

"We set out to create a beer that would be drinkable, inspirational adventure fuel, and would match the themes of the record…It would have to pack a kick, with high ABV…and it would have to be highly drinkable, because for all we know it could be the only fluid available to a pandimensional traveler, having to substitute in for 100% of their total, sustaining fluid consumption…To achieve these goals, we constructed a first-of-its-kind "IMPERIAL SESSION IPA."

"Imperial" essentially means that the beer has high alcohol content, high hop flavor, and a strong aroma—Aeronaut fittingly chose to include the galaxy hop to accomplish that. But Aeronaut has also labeled the beer "sessionable", which usually means that it's something you can drink a lot of without becoming intergalactically drunk. Most beer aficionados might claim that a beer being both "imperial" and "sessionable" is impossible, especially for an IPA like T.R.I.P. Ben Holmes begs to differ: by using a "proprietary cold-steeping process," the brewery was able to extract maximum flavor and aroma from their hops, leaving out a lot of bitterness IPAs sometimes get dinged for. The best part? The can itself is the key to your new auditory adventure:

"The label of the beer contains a social media instruction that gives drinkers access to the album. When a special hashtag is directed toward the band and brewery, it triggers a message that tells the drinker what an alternate reflection of themself is doing right now in a parallel universe, along with a link to the album."

Locals to Boston will have an easier time getting hold of the T.R.I.P beer cans, but check out stores in the Boston region and ask if they have a crazy little craft beer by the folks at Aeronaut—the one with the album by The Lights Out. Here's a taste of some of the album: